Saturday, March 8, 2014

Our clocks spring ahead this Sunday morning, and although we lose an hour, we're not about to short-change your Breakfast Links – our weekly round-up of fav links to other web sites, blogs, articles, and images, all gathered via Twitter.
• The unexpected allure of the 18th c. castrato.
• "One of the damnedest trampling matches you ever saw": when early 20th c. archaeologists talked trash.
• Antebellum splendor vs. the brutality of slavery: thoughtful article about the narrow interpretations of slavery at Southern Plantation Museums.
• Image: The consequences of war in The Crimea 160 years ago: Florence Nightingale visits the wounded at Scutari Military Hospital.
• "A great many pretty caps in the windows of Cranbourn Alley. I hope when you come we shall both be tempted": Jane Austen writes to her sister Cassandra, 1814.
• 18th c. fencing: the humble petition of Peter Renaud.
• The staircases of Old London, as seen in glass slides once used for magic-lantern shows.
• Irene Castle on how the Tango led the world to dress reform, 1914.
• Image: Dancing on a tumbling world, divided between love and scholarship.
• The intriguing story of Dido Belle, daughter of a slave, at Kenwood in 18th c. England.
• Up in the air, in the margins, on stilts.
• When John met Sarah: convict courtship in 19th c. Australia.
• Image: A male momento mori figure used for spiritual contemplation, c 1800. One half is flesh, the other a skeletal.
• Debunking the myths surrounding Zelda Fitzgerald.
• Cringe or starve: as cold as regimented Victorian charity?
• Fashion myths: the connection between the hobble skirt and Coca-cola.
• Image: Unusually long knitting needles & a large ball of yarn in a fashion plate, c. 1801.
• Among the perils of drinking water in the 17th c.: 255 frogs.
• "Our hero is a sportsman": British domestic interiors in 19th c. India.
• "Successful marriages start in the kitchen": mid 20th c. sexist advertising at its finest.
• Amazing photographs of the murmurations of starlings.
• Intriguing photos from the 1860s show a Paris that no longer exists.
• The poignant story of a 1918 parlour-maid turned munitions-worker, making shells during the Great War.
• Image: "She didn't like seven sample husbands" that commercial Cupid sent, 1914.
• The return of the monocle: one part hipster, one part Mr. Peanut.
• That's a-maze-ing: garden mazes and labyrinths.
• How do you treat a woman in 1715 who thinks she's already dead?
• Scottish poet Robert Burns and 18th c. oatcakes.
• Image: Perhaps the best Penguin ever for World Book Day?
• Traveling for suffrage: two women, a car, a cat, and a mission.
• Chawton House Library appeals for funds to help fight floods that put collection at risk.
• "He called him old Roague and old Pedler and old Pimpe": rough words from 17th c. sailors.
• The tales of Darab, a beautifully illustrated medieval Persian prose romance.
• Photographs of a lovely spring day in London's Hyde Park, 1951.
• A shimmering cream silk dress, 1920s.
• Historical pancake recipes for Shrove Tuesday.
• Cock Lane and Cockspur Street: London streets with interesting histories.
• Wealthy NYC women form the Colony Club in 1900 - not because they wanted a club, but because they wanted a clubhouse.
• Margery Kempe, author of a medieval autobiography.
• Time-traveling celebrities.
• Image: "Plymouth Dockyard", by James Tissot, 1877.
• Why are all these 16th-18th c. ladies dressed as Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt?
• The sad lot of syphilitic whores of Georgian London.
• How the great wheels for spinning survived.
• An awful fire of 1797: thousands of sacks of grain at Albion Mills were destroyed by fire with the smell of burnt toast.
• From the key to the Bastile to George Washington's false teeth: the top ten objects in the collection of Mount Vernon.
• Image: If other professions were paid like writers, artists, & musicians.Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls for fresh updates daily.

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A Polite Explanation

There’s a big difference in how we use history. But we’re equally nuts about it. To us, the everyday details of life in the past are things to talk about, ponder, make fun of -- much in the way normal people talk about their favorite reality show.

We talk about who’s wearing what and who’s sleeping with whom. We try to sort out rumor or myth from fact. We thought there must be at least three other people out there who think history’s fascinating and fun, too. This blog is for them.